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VARIOUS / 14 TRACKS - 14 tracks: Chamber drift

2013-05-21T17:36:28+01:00

VARIOUS / 14 TRACKS
14 tracks: Chamber drift
Boomkat / 14 Tracks
14 tracks compilations
MP3 Bundle

This week's selection sways from wistful drone pop to gauzy ambient and modern compositions; collecting 14 songs with an elemental, folksy awareness which share a rarified, surreal atmosphere. We've picked those with a timeless sense of romance and an elegant, breezy feel for space, spanning the work of preternaturally gifted vocalists such as Liz Harris aka Grouper, Turkey's Ekin Fil and L.A. nightingale Julia Holter, and boundary-pushing experimenters AGF or Chaines, plus gorgeous, chamber-like pieces from Loren Connors, Lee Noble, and Dirty Beaches alongside the widescreen soundscape impressionism of Colin Stetson and Sean McCann, and the enchanting ambient pop of Deux Filles aka Simon Turner and Colin Tucker. They're sensitive sonic balms for melancholic souls; an elusive catharsis for ether dreamers and escapologists.

PEARSON SOUND - REM

2013-05-20T05:00:00+01:00

PEARSON SOUND
REM
PEARSON SOUND
DUBSTEP / GRIME / FUNKY
MP3 Release

Pearson Sound shares four lean, moody and experimental riddims on his eponymous imprint. Up front he unleashes the strafing, darkside synthlines and fractured steppers flux of 'REM' and a daedly body swerve entitled 'Gridlock' laced with proper subbass pressure and almost Anthony Shakir-style percussive edits. Down town, 'Figment' figures Mr. Kennedy at his most reflective, jettisoning the beats in place of Popol Vuh-style chorales and piquant synth sparkle, and almost acting as an intro for the rugged, filtered 'ardcore tessellations of 'Crimson (Beat Ritual). Really strong twelve...

KODE 9 - Rinse:22

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

KODE 9
Rinse:22
Rinse
DUBSTEP / GRIME / FUNKY
MP3 Release

Visionary DJ/selector and sonic theorist Steve Goodman aka Kode 9 mans what is inarguably Rinse's most crucial mix CD to date. With mercurial sleight of hand he blends 37 tracks spanning the rhizome of techy, contemporary, bass-rooted funk and leaves most other selectors for dust. Bridging tempos, styles and patterns from myriad sub-strains of house, garage, hip hop, grime and footwork, he sums his intentions thusly; "This style has emerged out of me trying to fit all the stuff I want to play in a set… Generally these sets start relatively simple rhythmically and then get more f*cked-up as the mix goes on. So I suppose there's an element of ultimately just trying to seduce people into dancing to footwork by [gradually] taking them out of their comfort zone!". Breathlessly flowing from Burial's 'Truant' at one end to Rashad's footwork junglism 'Let It Go' at the other, he incisively encodes connections between the Northern Jackin' sound of Alex Parkinson and Chris Lorenzo with Joy O's big room hit and Funkystepz flip out 'Vice Versa', before finding the sympathetic geometries between Jam City's 'Her', his double-timing 'Uh' and Kuedo's gyroscopic 'Mirtazapine', or seguing grimy Afro-futurisms from Visionist, Dexplicit and The Bug with Flow Dan. But, like he said, it's all building to his footwork selection, a stunning run from his wryly dissonant slow/fast weapon, 'Xingfu Lu' thru the body-baffling torque of RP Boo's 'Steamidity' and 'Red Hot', to his own PE-snatching killer 'Kan' and the liquid funk flux of Bleep Bloop's remix for Uncon Sci's '8 Shots Up' and ramping up to the zero-gravity jungle/footwork and R&B fusions of DJs Rashad, Spinn and Manny. Ultimately it's an accelerationist's dream come tru, and one of the most impressive mix CDs we've heard in years. The bar has just been reset.

PORTABLE / ANTHONY 'SHAKE' SHAKIR / KOWTON - Albatross Remixes

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

PORTABLE / ANTHONY 'SHAKE' SHAKIR / KOWTON
Albatross Remixes
Sud Electronic
TECHNO / HOUSE
MP3 Release

Infectious Afro-futuristix from the inimitable Portable, backed with Anthony Shakir and Kowton remixes. His original 'Albatross' is a deadly lesson to all the blandbag house swingers in the art of getting the f**k down, dealing the maddest mechanical kinks and zipping electronics topped with those ever intriguing vocals , no drops, no daft detuned vocals, just proper, hi-tech funk. Equally Kowton gets the vibe, tucking its tetchy itchiness into pressurised subs and rhythmelodic patter with a grimy, bittersweet flavour. And who better to complement that feeling than Anthony Shakir with his manic, banging B-side remix. 'Madmen' indeed!

MU-ZIQ - XTEP

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

MU-ZIQ
XTEP
Planet Mu
ELECTRONIC
MP3 Release

Mike Paradinas, boss of the sprawling Planet Mu imprint, does what he does best with his first new µ-Ziq material in over half a decade. 'XTEP' is flush with the sort of nostalgic melody, rave romance and charm that endeared him to so many in the first place. It's an unashamed return to his roots, from the bubbling pastoral melody and proggy chimes of 'XT' to the happy-as-larry piano house of 'Ritm' and 'Pulsar''s nEuro-electro futurism, while the footwork-style drum flux and swooning, emotional melody of 'Monj2' and the bluer swing of 'New Bimple' concede to current trends but not at the expense of his integrity.

DIRTY BEACHES - Drifters / Love Is The Devil

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

DIRTY BEACHES
Drifters / Love Is The Devil
ZOO MUSIC
ELECTRONIC
MP3 Release

Amazing return from Alex Zhang Hungtai's Dirty Beaches; a sprawling double header opus of labyrinthine darkwave pop, knackered electronics and chamber experiments. We're usually impressed by his work but this one is really something else, feeding forward the traces of dilapidated rockabilly, blues and garage that informed his brilliant 'Badlands' into a deeply captivating new sound more akin to Suicide, Andy Stott or Loren Connors. Crafted over the course of winter 2012 while living between Montreal and Berlin, it's leaden with heartbreaking gravity and existential self-reflection to often claustrophobic degrees but ultimately with a redemptive sense of catharsis that keeps it from sinking under the weight of his beautifully articulated misery. It works as two albums conceptually linked but aesthetically cleft. The 'Drifters' half is driven by metronomic machine rhythms and hypnotically looped-up riffs haunted by forlorn vocals and Lynchian synth atmospheres, swaggering with a knackered but resolute sense of direction at times recalling Alan Vega at his glowering best, at others reminding of Tropic Of Cancer's emaciated, ghoulish presence. By the end of its eight tracks the gloom really sets in with 'Landscapes In The Mist', and at the point of no return the noirish suite of 'Love Is The Devil' takes hold; eight instrumental songs too depressed to speak, full of pining jazz-noir motifs, sepulchral keys, isolationist synth pads and heart-in-mouth string symphonies. A minor masterpiece, no less.

IKE YARD - Remix EP 2 (Tropic Of Cancer)

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

IKE YARD
Remix EP 2 (Tropic Of Cancer)
Desire Records
ELECTRONIC
MP3 Release

Following last year's one-off hook-up with Blackest Ever Black, which showcased storming versions from Regis and Monoton, Desire Records go it alone on their second volume of Ike Yard remixes. Tropic of Cancer get top billing with their take on the NY post-punk minimalists' 'Half A God': they offer up a cold-to-the-touch, marbled slab of sepulchral, introspective dub, Camella Lobo's phantasmal vocal presence and reverbed guitar beckoning you into a colour-bled zwischenwelt; deadly sparse and unforgiving, at times it sounds like it could be a lost instrumental sketch from Hannett and Joy Division's Closer sessions. Ike Yard's own Fred Szymanski adopts the name Recombinant for his remix of the same track, a glitchy electro-breakbeat number, before Black Strobe's Arnaud Rebotini moulds another track from Ike's eponymous '82 debut, 'Cherish 8', into a big-room electro-house thumper of dubious quality.

GEORGE FITZGERALD - Thinking Of You

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

GEORGE FITZGERALD
Thinking Of You
Hotflush Recordings
TECHNO / HOUSE
MP3 Release

Basement ready house gear from George Fitzgerald for his spiritual home, Hotflush. Both sides are built to move; 'Thinking Of You' following a trancey/dubstep-y course of builds and drops with a chunky tech-house palette; 'Nighttide Lover' working with whirring, bubbling, swinging drums for the shape cutters.

GOLDFFINCH - MINDSET014 (w/ Digital Bonus Track)

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

GOLDFFINCH
MINDSET014 (w/ Digital Bonus Track)
Mindset Records
TECHNO / HOUSE
MP3 Release

**Includes a bonus track** Mindset come with three lean and funky tech-house trax by Goldffinch. Stealthily evolving the styles heard on his Numbers and Audio Culture aces, the Belgian producer squares the tightly tucked, swinging and rolling torque of 'Digital Dysfunction' on the A-side, and gets down to a tuffer techno style almost reminding of Marcel Fengler with the concatenated drive and late night pads of 'Pixel Perfect', while '828' delivers a payload of pendulous subbass swing and minimal percussion reminding of Wolfgang Voigt's Studio One classics.

WALO STAHAN GWARI - Drumming for Creation

2013-05-20T04:00:00+01:00

WALO STAHAN GWARI
Drumming for Creation
Touch
WORLD
MP3 Release

The second in Touch's vinyl/DL-only series of archival editions spirits us back to 1985 and a live set played by the Walo Shatan Gwari ensemble. A recording of the performance - which took place as part of the African Music Village event at the Commonwealth Institute in Holland Park, London - was released under the name Drumming For Creation on cassette by Touch in '85, and 28 years later it's lost none of its lustre, as the ensemble (led by Malam Walo, and hailing from an agricultural region of Northeastern Nigeria) tear through its hypnotic, cyclical, powerful drum-songs. The ambience of the room, not to mention the vigorous applause of the rapt audience, is captured beautifully, but crucially the sound of the ensemble is close, crisp and times downright luminous. The whole set is a joy, but we're particularly down with 'Farming Is The Most Important Occupation Today', which combines an additive, minimalist intensity with a magnificently bluesy sway. Pure fire.